According to a criminal complaint, Wendler took the 18-year-old student to a party in La Crescent, Minnesota, in May 2014. The woman drank until she got sick. Friends told police they put her in bed at Wendler's La Crosse apartment because she couldn't walk. The woman said she woke up to find Wendler sexually assaulting her.

Wendler's attorney, Todd Schroeder, argued the sex was consensual and the woman's testimony wasn't consistent with what she told police.